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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I just spent about two hours unwrapping (lots o' bubblewrap), screwing together, tightening and otherwise assembling a pretty bed my mother bought at Pier 1...We don't normally buy stuff there but we need a teeny table for our teeny kitchen and they were having a huge sale so we looked and found the bed...

Twenty second on the internet and Kaboodle tell me, though, that there's a manufacter's defect making it 5 (I'm still saying 7 b/c I measured) inches too long and they're selling it as is---the full size only though...

And after I do all this with a cut on the inside of my finger :( Now to figure out what to tell my mom about her too long bed...Lots of pillows maybe? (Except we also bought a bench to go at the end and that might not work now....)

So, see, I am trying to post reviews...things just keep making it more difficult!

Monday, August 25, 2008

The whole layout of The Book . . . Spot right now looks really funky but I'm not sure it's not just the computer I'm using (it's having some serious internet issues) but if it is looking strange for you, too (either a blue background not black or the whole header and content way over to the right--enough that you have to scroll over--and not centered), let me know?

Anyway, I was supposed to be posting reviews today, but as often happens, I got distracted...I spent the afternoon chewing way too much Fruit Sorbet Orbit gum, making sure my dogs didn't knock each other around too much....and entering contests.

I thought you might want to do the same (well the latter at least...the gum thing for one made me feel kind of sick, though I'm sure it was just the quantity--and my dogs aren't on loan) so here are some links:

Blood of the Muse has a giveaway for a signed copy of the Harry Dresden book White Night: HERE ends August 31 (not a YA book)

The Compulsive Reader has an Author Spotlight contest for The Center of the Universe: HERE ends August 30

Author Kelly Parra has three contests at Invisible Touch, one each for August, September, & October for the release of her new book Invisible Touch. Go HERE for details & to enter. Ends August 30; September 30; October 30.

Book Divas is giving away The Fruit of my Lipstick ending September 8th: HERE

Author CK Kelly Martin has a great contest going for a signed copy of I Know It's Over, a IKIO poster & some other fabulous stuff: HERE through Sept 23

Reading Keeps You Sane has a Belated 100th Post Contest going on right HERE until Sept 5th for your choice of Chloe Doe ARC; Jet Set ARC (I love that book, btw); I Heat You, You Haunt Me; Such a Pretty Girl; The Big Game of Everything; Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

Bookluver Carolhas a contest, too, for one of the following books: Puppy Love by Nancy Krulik, Kiss my Book ARC by Jamie Michaels, or Outside Beauty by Cynthia Kadohata. It's HERE and ends August 30th

Author Cynthia Leitich Smith has a contest for a few copies of Immortal (a new book with stories by her, Rachel Caine, Claudia Gray, Richelle Mead, etc...that I really want because it's a Borders exclusive and I have no Borders w/in an hour and a half drive). That's HERE and ends the 30th

Allison's Attic of Books has an ARC of The 19th WifeHERE and this one ends August 29th (not YA, I'm pretty sure)

I'll try to post some actual reviews soon--I have actually been reading, so there are things to post (Tropical storms and another major thing have just taken up a lot of my time and ability to do so) :)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Another 'vampire' book that I read a long time ago (not as long ago as I could have given the book is sixteen years old, but I did read it several months ago) but this one is definitely YA. The Silver Kiss is one of the few books that I think (now this could be my memory failing me) is actually well suited for younger teens, too-maybe that's due to the year and it's recently that the sex and language has been so amped up, but either way this is just a good story.

Simon is still a good vampire-but not 'good' as in fluffy puppies and rainbows good, though. And Zoe is a very believable, very relateable sixteen-year-old. Zoe's mother is dying of cancer, no one's talking about it, and she's hardly allowed (by her father) to visit the hospital--it's in this lonely environment that Simon first visits her home and they strike up what could, I suppose, be called a friendship though not a normal one.

There is darkness to the story (Simon is still, after three centuries, trying to avenge his mother's death) and Zoe's mother is dying and she and her father are learning how to deal with the dying and the new situation they're finding themselves in. And Simon is frightening--both to Zoe and, if I remember right, himself.

This may not be a perfect story and I will be the first to admit that it's short (and was a very fast read for me) but I really enjoyed the way it wove the very human story of a girl dealing with losing her mother and growing up through it, with a low level love story of a teenager and a vampire who, while caring, is still a dark, not 'nice' creature. It might not be up to Twilight (it's not very long and Zoe and Simon's relationship really didn't seem the main focus--at least not romantically) but it would be a good book to read either between any of those book or after you finish them.

Halfway to the GraveNight Huntress: Book 1Avon(October 30, 2007)384 Pages$6.99(paperback)Amazon

This book isn't a young adult book nor is it one I read recently (which might hinder the reviewing just a bit), but it is one I really, really, really enjoyed so I wanted to make a point to review it anyway.

This first book in the Night Huntress series (I think there are five planned so far and two currently released) is centered around Cat, a half vampire, half human who I seem to remember seeing described somewhere as 'if Buffy and Angel has a daughter'-though personally I think she's a lot more fiery than Angel so maybe they just said him for a known vampire? Cat didn't know all of her life that her father was a vampire (but she knew she wasn't normal). But ever since she found out six years ago that her mother was raped by a vampire, she has spent her night seeking vengeance on them in hopes of finding him.

One night she is captured during one such attempt by a vampire bounty hunter, Bones. This leads to lots of snarkiness, lots of fighting and an eventually a partnership of sorts. She'll get to find her father and he'll train her.

Jeaniene Frost writes this 'training' exceptionally well, I read the book several months ago (in the winter I think) and I still remember what Cat went through). She didn't do the predictable, but at the same time the things made complete sense and both Bones and Cat's actions and reactions were completely in character. The same was true with the outings the two of them had throughout the book; they were a fantastic pair. Cat's semi-vampireness was played very well and Bones was a true vampire but also a great leading male character at the same time.

Some reviews have complained (I suppose it was complaining) that Bones was too much like Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show. While I'll admit that I didn't find that to be a bad thing while reading those reviews, I'll also say that even if I literally tried to picture Bones as Spike as I was reading, it didn't work. True there are some similarities in appearance and there were some of the same 'pet names' Spike used, used by Bones, but they both have such distinct personalities that you could have written Spike into the book and it wouldn't have been confusing at all. There's Spike and there's Bones. They're both awesome vampires and I love them both, but they are their own characters. (Maybe that wasn't necessary but I figured there were enough reviews addressing that point negatively that I would address it positively.)

That might not be the best review (like I said I read the book at least six months ago) but I really did absolutely love it, so I hope you'll at least take that from this review and give the book a chance :) (There's a scene--or two, but one for sure--that makes this definitely not a YA book though) 10/10

Well I'm back from Boston, I've spent the past few days contributing 20+ hours to fixing my brother's computer that died (it'd been sort of fixed but wrongly so that's where a whole lot of those hours came in), so now I'm going to see how watching TCM and posting some reviews goes :)

(By the way, while I was in Boston--or Cambridge, actually--I went to Bartley's Burgers (which is in Principles of Love) so that was fun-and they have great burgers, too.)

Coming up (review-wise): Peeps by Scott Westerfeld; The Book of Luke by Jenny O'Connell; Triple Shot Betty by Jody Gehrman (planes are good for reading) as well as those on the sidebar at some point...

I have no idea if anyone reads this more than just when they stumble across it (hey, I'm realistic) but if you do, let me know if you'd prefer me putting my 'rating' at the top of my review?

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